QUEENSLAND

Cairns and Far North Queensland


Between Adelaide and Cairns we have a 5 hr stopover in Sydney that is made much more pleasant by taking a short cab ride to Nicky and Andy’s house in Dulwich Hill. Foxtel at last! Luckily Andy is watching the infamous ‘Monkey Business’ test between Australia and India. It looks like a dull draw so we catch England winning the beach cricket. Amazingly on arrival at the airport I find out that Michael Clarke of all people gets 3 wickets in five balls in the last over of the test to seal a remarkable victory for the Ozzies. Typical – at least the Indians go on to win the One Day series - even Australians are starting to get bored of their test side winning cricket matches.

We’ve been warned about the rain and humidity during the wet season in North Queensland and sure enough it’s stuffy and wet on arrival with a spectacular thunderstorm the first night. We get a good deal at the Rydges Hotel and prepare to hole up for a while, as there is a tropical cyclone 100 kms away heading in our direction. Luckily the storm blows itself out and we can start our search for a car to get us out of this rather uninteresting town. Cairns reminds me a bit of Hertford in the 80’s with drunken ‘Blackbirds’ locals replaced by Aboriginals who don’t restrict their drunkenness to ‘kicking out’ time – poor bastards were fine for 40,000 years and along came Captain Cook and his rum to expose a genetic weakness.

We buy a Ford Fairlane 1996 Ghia 3.6L sedan for a bargain $5500 and the good news is that there are only 309,000 kms on the clock! After a wonky haircut (8 times the price of a good cut in Laos) and the Golden Compass at the cinema we head north to the remote tropical rainforests of the Daintree National Park.
No wonder plenty of people own 4WD’s up here. We just make it to the Beach House at Cape Tribulation (so named as Captain Cook ran aground close-by on the Great Barrier Reef) but the last few kms are a bit pot-holed for our old banger. A few kms further north there’s a steep slope and a sign saying 4WD’s only so I decide on caution particularly as we don’t want to wreck the car after such a short time. I remember Cape Trib. from 1990 when I stayed in the Jungle lodge nearby and this place is similar. Dense rainforest grows right up to the beach and a chorus of mating frogs compliments the Spartan yet expensive accommodation.
We cross the Daintree River, on nothing much more than a glorified raft, over croc- infested waters. Unfortunately we don’t spot any of these prehistoric reptiles (much more visible in the dry season with lower water levels). After a brief stop at ‘mosquitoes from hell’ beach we leave the rainforest and head towards the Atherton Tablelands. There are still pockets of rainforest such as at the Mareeba gorge where we all walk across a swing-bridge to get a good view and get soaked to the skin. As I explain philosophically to Ruby you can’t experience a rainforest fully with no rain.
We continue the Spartan mosquito-ridden rainforest accommodation theme at Kuranda. We shun the scenic railway/gondola and head into the outback with a still varied landscape: endless kilometres with nothing but scrub and giant termite mounds; picturesque vistas of rolling plains and mountainous peaks from the McHugh lookout; orderly rows of dark-green leaved coffee and mango plantations; pockets of forest including the massive curtain ‘strangler’ fig (it begins life using the host tree as support, then gradually suffocates the older tree when strong enough to support itself); ‘Alpine’ villages such as Yungaburra complete with Swiss-themed restaurant and incongruous platypus viewing platforms nearby (the notice informs us that the two important qualities of a first time Duckbill spotter are silence and patience – hardly surprising then that with Harley and Ruby in tow we didn’t spot any).

The plethora of varied panoramas is extraordinary including the stunning Baron’s Falls with the biggest drop of all through dense rainforest. Next stop is the shorter Milaa Milaa waterfall where Ruby and I take the freezing plunge in the rain whilst Karen guards sleeping Harley. We then negotiate Ravenshoe’s rolling green hills (home of the biggest wind farm in Oz with a rather paltry 21 turbines) en route to the world famous thermal pools of Innot – well famous in Innot anyway. Here, rather than digging ourselves a natural mud bath, we opt for the man-made variety at the hot ‘springs’ which is a selection of spas at different temperatures. We get to the seriously hot inner sanctum where a scaly octogenarian seems to have malted into the 43-degree pool so Karen opts for the 41 degree Madras and I roast my chestnuts in the 45-degree Vindaloo. A detour to Mount Garner is a waste of time with dusty roads, more termite mounds and no mining museum to show for our troubles. The next section of the journey is more interesting on a single-track road through the aptly named Misty Mountains. Not a hobbit in sight but plenty of sheep, cows and greenery reminiscent of the UK or NZ. Eventually we arrive in darkness at Innisfail with none of the promised Art Deco in sight but plenty of ugly buildings including our accommodation of choice the Great Barrier Reef Motel. At least they are showing the Chelsea v Everton League Cup Semi 1st Leg.

We have to go 70 kms or so back to Cairns to pick up the car insurance documents and spend the day in the rather snazzy lagoon (giant swimming pool with spurting sculptures and actual sand).Haley does a length with no armbands for the first time. The cloud cover is deceptive and we all get mild sunburn for the first time on the trip. More importantly we miss out on Miss Bikini World in our eagerness to head south for Mission Beach and a visit to the Great Barrier Reef proper (fish and coral this time rather than ‘prison block’ motel).